


The Laundry Pile

by predilection



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Puppy Piles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-10
Updated: 2016-10-10
Packaged: 2018-08-21 18:09:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8255389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/predilection/pseuds/predilection
Summary: Pidge blinks at their laundry, nonplussed. "I wasn't expecting that," she tells them honestly. 
"It's pretty," Hunk says, his eyes wide with wonder.
Lance just squints at the pile, his eyebrows furrowed like he can't quite comprehend what he's seeing. "Is our laundry supposed to be glowing?"





	

**Author's Note:**

> Because this fandom needs more puppy pile (or should it be "lion pile"?) fic.
> 
> Warning: this fic contains brief references to the trauma these characters have experienced.

They learn that the Castle's way of doing laundry is very different than the way laundry is done back on Earth after Coran asks them all to bring their bedding to a room they've never been in before. When they arrive, bewildered but with pillows and blankets in their arms, he instructs them to place their bedding on a circular platform at the center of the room.

Pidge stares at their pile of bedding, wondering if it'll soon drop down into a vat of water or if some sort of robotic device will handle the laundering. 

Next to her, Lance is also studying their pile of bedding, but unlike her, his head is tilted to the side. "Okay, so how exactly does this work?" he asks.

"It's simple," Coran replies, matter-of-fact. "All you have to do is pull this lever over here on the wall." He pulls it and the pile of laundry immediately starts glowing blue. Then it starts to sparkle as tiny glittering bursts of light appear all over it. 

Pidge blinks at their laundry, nonplussed. "I wasn't expecting that," she tells them honestly. 

"It's pretty," Hunk says, his eyes wide with wonder.

Lance just squints at the pile, his eyebrows furrowed like he can't quite comprehend what he's seeing. "Is our laundry supposed to be glowing?"

*

They all learn how to use the Castle's laundry machine -- Coran calls it a "Wash Fluxinator" but he and Allura are the only ones to call it by its name -- and after that, they are free to use it whenever they want.

Somehow, it becomes routine for them wash their bedding together. They all to gather in the laundry room -- "Wash Fluxinator Room," Coran corrects them -- once every other week or so and chit-chat while the laundry machine does its thing.

*

The fifth time they congregate in the laundry room happens to be right after a pretty vicious Galra attack on the Castle. They're all exhausted from the battle and instead of the chatter that usually accompanies the laundering process, they're all trying not to fall asleep on their feet. Lance and Hunk are leaning against each other with their eyes closed, Shiro has dark circles under his eyes and Keith lifts a hand to cover a yawn. Even Allura looks like she'd rather be in bed right now.

Pidge is also tired and asks Coran, "Couldn't this have waited a few hours until we all got some rest?"

"Perhaps," Coran says, scratching his chin like this hadn't occurred to him. "But I thought you'd all appreciate the clean bedding!"

The glowing stops and a chime signals the end of the laundry cycle.

Lance cracks open an eye at the sound. "Oh, I appreciate it all right," he says. He stumbles towards their laundry and then face-plants into the pile.

When it's clear that he doesn't plan on moving, Keith walks over and pokes him in the side with the toe of one of his boots. "Five more minutes," Lance mumbles into a pillow. 

Hunk yawns. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," he says and lies down next to Lance.

"This is the Wash Fluxinator Room, not your sleeping quarters! What do you think you're doing?" Coran asks.

Allura glares at him and answers before any of them can. "Sleeping," she says and it sounds like a declaration. She lowers herself to the opposite side of the pile as Hunk and Lance and rolls onto her side. The mice climb down from where they were sitting on her shoulder and snuggle together in the crook of her arm.

Pidge catches Shiro's eye. He's smiling, clearly amused, and there's a fondness in his expression that Pidge understands. Pidge nods back at him in silent agreement and then they both approach the pile of dozing teammates and clean laundry together. Pidge curls up next to Hunk, and Shiro lies on his back between her and Allura.

Neither Coran nor Keith move, both of them frowning down at the sight in front of them. Allura doesn't even open her eyes when she says, "Both of you get over here so we can lower the lights and rest."

Coran moves first, kneeling on the blankets on Allura's other side. "This is rather unorthodox. Are you sure about this, princess?" In response, Allura sighs, and without looking, reaches out and tugs at his tunics until he lies down probably. "Oh," he says, surprised. "This is actually quite comfortable."

Pidge agrees. The laundry platform isn't nearly as firm that the floors of the Castle and the bedding is still warm from the laundry cycle. There's also something about lying with her teammates that calms her. 

During their battles against the Galra, Pidge is so busy concentrating on fighting that she doesn't have the time to really worry about anyone else's safety -- even when she witnesses more close calls between the lions and Galra blaster fire than she's comfortable with. It's usually after the fights are over, when she's lying awake in bed and alone with her own thoughts, that she finds herself replaying their battles in her head and experiencing the fear for her friends that she didn't have time for before.

She's always worried about her father and brother so the nights when she also worries about her friends are the worst.

She knows she's not the only one who has trouble sleeping. Almost every time she's gotten up in the middle of the night, she's run into someone. 

On multiple occasions she's found Keith sitting with his back against the wall in the hallway, a haunted look in his eyes. She's taken to sitting next to him and opening her laptop to distract herself. The third time she joined him, Keith asked her quietly, "Do you have nightmares too?" answering the question she never asked.

She's found Lance staring out at the stars through a window with tears in his eyes and listened to him talk about how much he misses his family.

She's found Allura staring up at the new Balmeran crystal and talking to her father like she hoped he could hear her. She's also found Allura sitting with Coran in the command room, both of them weeping for the world they had lost.

She's found Hunk fretting about upcoming missions the same was she does about past ones. "Did you hear Shiro's plan? It risks all of our lives. I mean it's not that it's a bad plan, it's more that... have I mentioned it risks all our lives?" Once, she found Hunk frowning down at green goop in the kitchen and she remembers him shrugging and telling her, "It turns out that the worse this stuff tastes, the more it keeps you from overthinking."

She hasn't found Shiro awake during the night but that's only because he's always found her first. He's listened to her talk about her fears, held her when she's broken down, and simply kept her company. In return, she's leaned against his side as he's recounted his nightmares, holding his shaking hands in her own.

Although she wishes that all of them could sleep peacefully through the night, Pidge finds it comforting when she leaves her bed and runs into someone. No matter who it is, being near one of her friends provides her with tangible proof that they survived the fight that haunts her. That her friends survived against the Galra also gives her hope that her father and brother, wherever they are, are surviving too.

So as she looks around at all of them lying together on their pile of clean laundry, she can't help but feel reassured by the close proximity of so many beings she holds dear.

Only Keith has yet to join them. He's still standing at the edge of the bedding by Lance, his arms crossed and a pensive expression on his face. "There's room for one more," Pidge tells him.

Lance, his voice still muffled by a pillow, mutters, "Lower the lights and get down here, dude."

Keith replies, "Don't call me 'dude'," but then he uncrosses his arms and Pidge watches as the tension leaves his shoulders. He disappears out of view and the lights dim. She closes her eyes so she hears it when Keith joins them, settling himself into the available space between Coran and Lance.

Pidge listens to the soft sounds of her friends breathing and when she hears Hunk and Shiro start to snore, she smiles to herself. The fight they just finished was a tough one with way too many close calls, but for once, she's not fearful, and she knows that she won't be the only one who sleeps through the night.


End file.
